In a highly anticipated turn of events, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has returned to his native Australia following a plea deal that allowed him to walk free from a London prison. The emotional scenes unfolded at Canberra Airport, where Assange's wife and father greeted him with warm embraces and tears of joy.

Stella Assange, Julian's wife, expressed the need for her husband to have time to recover and adjust to his newfound freedom during a news conference held shortly after his arrival. She emphasized the toll the past 14 years of legal battles with US officials have taken on Julian. "You have to understand what he's been through," Mrs. Assange pleaded, urging for privacy to allow their family to heal.

Assange's legal troubles stemmed from accusations of leaking classified documents, which the US officials claimed endangered lives. The plea deal reached by Assange saw him plead guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, instead of facing the original 18 charges against him. The case centered around the significant WikiLeaks disclosure in 2010, which included a video from a US military helicopter showing civilian casualties in Baghdad and thousands of classified documents highlighting alleged unreported civilian deaths in Afghanistan.

These revelations became a global sensation, sparking widespread debate and scrutiny of American involvement in foreign conflicts. Assange officially entered his guilty plea on the remote Northern Mariana Islands, an American territory in the Pacific, just two days after leaving Belmarsh prison. As part of the agreement, he was released and allowed to return home to Australia.

Assange's lawyer, Jen Robinson, strongly denounced the plea deal, referring to it as the "criminalization of journalism" and warning of a dangerous precedent. Stella Assange echoed these sentiments, expressing hopes that the media would recognize the danger of the US case against Julian, as it ultimately convicted him for publishing true information that the public deserved to know.

During the course of his release, Assange had a phone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who played a pivotal role in securing his freedom. Assange reportedly thanked the Prime Minister, stating that he had "saved his life." Prime Minister Albanese held his own news conference, expressing his satisfaction that the case had finally concluded. Although he acknowledged disagreements with Assange's actions in the past, he emphasized that it was time for his release and prioritized the case accordingly. When questioned about its impact on US-Australia relations, Prime Minister Albanese described the relationship with the United States as central and positive.

The US State Department, on its part, stated that its involvement in Assange's case had been limited. It underscored the consequences of Assange's actions, claiming they put the lives of US partners, allies, and diplomats at risk. Additionally, it argued that the WikiLeaks releases had negatively impacted the ability of US diplomats to foster relationships abroad.

Having spent the last five years at London's high-security Belmarsh Prison, fighting against extradition to the US for the document leaks, Assange's return to Australia marks an important milestone. Previously, he faced separate charges of rape and sexual assault in Sweden, which were dropped in 2019 due to the amount of time that had passed since the original complaint. Nevertheless, women's rights groups in Sweden expressed disappointment that Assange was not formally questioned about the allegations.

As Julian Assange begins to rebuild his life after years of legal battles and confinement, the ramifications of his actions and the broader implications for press freedom continue to reverberate both domestically and internationally.